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'Incredibly sad': Adam Goodes rejects AFL Hall of Fame offer

Adam Goodes has reportedly declined his unanimous nomination for the AFL Hall of Fame. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
Adam Goodes has reportedly declined his unanimous nomination for the AFL Hall of Fame. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

Adam Goodes has rejected an offer to be inducted into the AFL Hall of Fame, after he was unanimously nominated for the honour.

The Sydney Swans legend, a two-time Brownlow Medallist, two-time premiership winner and four time All Australian, retired in 2015 after he was dogged by constant racial abuse and taunts over the final years of his career.

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The Herald Sun's Mark Robinson first reported Goodes had informed the AFL he would no be accepting the nomination.

Goodes has been largely absent from the AFL world since his retirement, with friends telling the Herald Sun he hasn't watched or attended matches in some time.

The Swans champion participated in the documentary The Australian Dream, which chronicled Goodes' experience in the league and the ways it led him to grapple with his own identity.

A second documentary, The Final Quarter, was also produced, also examining the circumstances surrounding Goodes' sad retirement from the league.

Goodes became national news in 2013, after he called out a teenage Collingwood fan who had called him an 'ape' during the AFL's Indigenous Round.

Then Collingwood president Eddie McGuire apologised to Goodes over the incident, but then days later joked on radio that the Swans star should be used to market the 'King Kong' musical in Melbourne.

McGuire was not punished by the AFL for the remark, which came 12 months before Goodes was named Australian of the Year.

Goodes began to be booed by AFL crowds not long after, and eventually brought his storied 372-game career to a close in 2015.

He also declined an invitation to join the parade lap for retired players at that year's Grand Final.

AFL greats draw backlash after Adam Goodes comments

Discussing Goodes' decision on SEN Breakfast, former AFL players Tim Watson and Garry Lyon both expressed surprise that he had declined the offer.

Watson said he thought the pain of what Goodes had been through might have eased in the years since he retired from the AFL.

“I was surprised that he’d rejected it ... he’s been retired for five years, I thought in that five years there might have been that repatriation that had taken place,” Watson said.

“The damage that occurred at that time, I thought it might have eased on him mentally and he might have been able to repair some of those bridges between himself and the game and feel differently about his time and then just appreciated all the great things about the game that were delivered to him, that he earned for himself.

“We always say time is a great healer, I just thought that the time may have healed all those differences. Clearly, it hasn’t."

Adam Goodes retired from the AFL in 2015, after he was relentlessly booed by fans for more than 18 months over his public stand against racism.  (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Adam Goodes retired from the AFL in 2015, after he was relentlessly booed by fans for more than 18 months over his public stand against racism. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Co-host Lyon said he was similarly disappointed.

“You can only understand if you were able to speak to Adam personally ... I’m really disappointed, not in him but for him that in his mindset he still doesn’t feel like he can receive the adulation that he deserves as a footballer,” he said.

However the pair's comments were not well received by some on social media, with many feeling it was Goodes' right to step away from the game which had treated him so badly at the twilight of his career.

The two-time Swans premiership player has rarely given media interviews since retiring but spoke with The Guardian last year about his now non-existent relationship with football.

"I've tried to go to games and I haven't enjoyed it. It's really sad, because my godchildren love going to the football," Goodes said.

"These are the kids of Michael O'Loughlin (another Sydney Swans icon and Goodes' cousin).

"They always ask me to go and I feel really bad about not sharing that time because I adore them.

"I have other things to do."

With AAP

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